Blessed be thee who taste this abomination - 98%

I want to kill myself now because I had been writing a review for 20 minutes and I accidentally pressed the backspace button and all was gone :(

Nevertheless, fuck that shit, Morbid Angel back in the early nineties were undoubtedly gods within the death metal scene. While most people seem to be more into Altars of Madness or Covenant, I'm definitely a sucker for the band's sophomore effort, which is like the transitional state between Altars' speed and aggression and Covenant's heavier and sludgier darkness.

So as far as the record itself is concerned, this is a fucking milestone. It begins with a noisy introduction and after a minute and a half, the opening riff of "Fall from Grace" sets the frame. Seconds afterwards, one of my favourite riffs of all time, which is also an "effigy of what's to come" - did you see what I did there? If not, go listen to Suffocation's debut NOW - for the rest of the album cracks the skulls of the feeble. All hell breaks loose and Pete Sandoval's blastbeats are immediately recognizable, and his drumming does not just stay to that, yet flows greatly through the album with insane drum fills and rolls that fit in greatly with the music. The above are naturally testimony to Sandoval's talent, skill, and musical intelligence. Furthermore, equally recognizable is Trey Azagthoth's guitar work, with the truly MORBID riffs and dissonant/atonal leads. However, Richard Brunelle's contribution is not to be overseen as more than half of the solos here are his. David Vincent's bass lines are complementary to the riffs and sound closer to Suffocation than to Obituary. The lyrics are about the ancient gods and all that occult stuff, and David Vincent's vocal performance derives growls adequately comprehensible so as for one to be able to hear almost every single word without being Kyle XY or possessing any superhuman powers in general. Finally, the band has put some orchestral tracks to create an ambiance at some points to close the disc. Especially "Doomsday Celebration" works perfectly as a calm before the storm that is "Day of Suffering". There are no actual highlights on the album since every song is brutally punctual, but I believe that my personal favourite would be one of these: "Fall from Grace", "Brainstorm", "Day of Suffering", or "Blessed are the Sick/Leading the Rats".

So, I believe there is not much more to be said about this unstoppable death metal beast. If you like extreme metal and you don't like this, you just probably don't really like extreme metal, but you're unaware of that fact. This is simply essential. GET IT!